


Agitated Instincts

by BraxtonDecrom, CrazyCatMeow, Myre_0, spookedshortie



Series: The Meteor Effect [21]
Category: Hermitcraft
Genre: Dragon Wels, End Drake Xisuma, Fluff, Full transformations, Gen, Honey, Hurt and comfort, Tango is a Phoenix, Vex Pranks, collaborative effort, meteor is very petty, no one’s having fun with this, still don’t know how to tag
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-23
Updated: 2020-09-07
Packaged: 2021-03-06 21:53:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 16,503
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26056021
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BraxtonDecrom/pseuds/BraxtonDecrom, https://archiveofourown.org/users/CrazyCatMeow/pseuds/CrazyCatMeow, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Myre_0/pseuds/Myre_0, https://archiveofourown.org/users/spookedshortie/pseuds/spookedshortie
Summary: The meteor is fed up with everyone being mostly fine with what’s happening to them. Being the petty person he is he starts to do some very mean things.
Relationships: Family - Relationship, Friends - Relationship, nope
Series: The Meteor Effect [21]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1529078
Comments: 77
Kudos: 192





	1. Can You Not?

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to everyone who was involved in writing this.
> 
> Myre_0 was so awesome as our editor. Thanks you so much.

Doc looks down at his notes and frowns. Ever since Bdubs had finished his transformation the Meteor has been unusually active, particles floating off it in a ray of colors, sizes and texture. He stands up and grabs his bag stuffing the papers inside. He heads over to spawn island to do a regular check.

As he arrives he frowns at the meteor, “You really messed Bdubs up, you know that?”

Since the meteor could communicate through the communicator network, Doc had installed a screen that is connected to the system so he can yell at the meteor easier. The screen flicks on, “Of course I know, you were all getting used to me, so he gets a nasty transformation.”

“You're a sadistic bastard, you know that?” Doc hisses as he glares at the meteor.

“You would be wise not to test me, I have been holding back and while your Vex friends might not let me do anything horrible. You cannot stop me so, watch your tongue,” At that, the screen goes dark.

Doc glares at the dull hunk of space rock as he’s filled with a sense of absolute dread. Hissing he returns to the observation deck. Keeping one eye one the meteor he carefully files his papers and locks down the compound for the night.

Hissing softly to himself Doc flys over to his base and falls asleep. 

The next morning he is awoken by a very sleepy and annoyed Bdubs who pulls him out of his nest.

“What’s sup?” Doc asks, basically still asleep, slurring words together, “Nothing else happened to you right?”

“Nothing, but um, the meteor told everyone who’s been affected to go to the commercial district,” Bdubs stammers as he shoves his communicator into Doc’s face.

Doc grabs the device and reads the message; “It seems that I’ve been challenged. I wonder if your precious Vex will be able to fix what I’m going to do? Anyhow, I want everyone who’s been affected to get to your shopping district. If you’re not affected yet stay on the mainland for now.” Doc snaps to alertness and begins to walk towards his portal with Bdubs. 

“Everyone's agreed to listen. The non-affected bunch are going to stay on the road right on the mainland,” Bdubs explains as they walk through the nether.

As they arrive the rest of the affected hermits are huddled together. A few minutes later everyone’s communicator buzzes, “I’m surprised, you all listened so well. Let's get started, one quick thing, don’t go in the nether, I’m not going to tell you what I’m doing but it should be fairly obvious once we get started,” And with that Ren, Jevin, Bdubs, and Cub collapse, and Mumbo’s eyes shut off as he powers down.

Ren growls in pain as he’s forced to shift. He doesn’t put up too much of a fuss during the transformation as he knows the more he resists the more pain it’ll cause him. 

Unfortunately for him, Cub isn’t as used to transforming and he struggles. As fur quickly overtakes him, he tries to fight off the transformation. There’s a sickening snap as his legs change. It takes seconds to complete, and Cub is forced back into his lion form.

For Mumbo things are a little different, his eyes shut off and System Resetting flashes across his vision. As he comes back on line the metal spreads across his face. He slowly straightens up and stands unmoving, waiting for the others to transform before he does anything.

Nothing really happens to Jevin, he loses grip on his ‘humanoid’ form and slips down into a puddle of bright blue slime. He attempts to reform and finds it impossible to do anything more than a lump.

Bdubs falls to the ground screeching as his legs disappear and his wings appear. A small amount of smoke drifts off of him as he lays unable to move in the hot sun. Thankfully Impulse takes notice and shoves him into a shaded area near the nether portal. A Health potion is gently poured across the forming blisters.

As the first wave of transformations ends, the Meteor sends another message, “Have you grasped what’s happening yet? If not, I’m sure you’ll get it soon,” With that more hermits drop to the ground in pain as they transform.

Beef falls to his knees as his torso shrinks into his steer body. As his arms start to disappear he carefully lays down, the fur starts to spread across his face. He winces as his teeth flatten and his face elongates. He quivers as he gets bigger. He lets out a snort as the transformation finishes.

Scar stares at his arms in horror as his skin turns a pale blue. He clutches his ears as they elongate slightly and taper off into a point. As his teeth sharpen his mouth twists up into a smile. In a panic, he flutters up and spots the Vex magic surrounding the town hall and flutters inside drawn to the magic sources.

As feathers spread across Grian’s chest he chirps in pain as his arms fuse backward and meld into his wings. The feathers overtake his face leaving his eyes uncovered and he feels this nose and mouth fuse into a hooked beak. He falls to the ground and squawks in pain and the unfortunately familiar feeling of shrinking fills him.

Panic builds in Xisuma’s chest as pain overtakes him. He starts to grow rapidly until he’s almost double the size. His armor snaps off and scatters around him. He falls onto his side as his legs rearrange into a quadruped style. His face draws out into a snout and sharp fangs fill his mouth.

Hissing as his body forcibly rearranges Doc quivers as his head fills with pressure. His human features disappear as he returns to a full creeper. His mechanics are still one line and functional so not much has changed in his head. As he lays in the soft mycelium he’s filled with a sense of wrongness.

“You’ve all figured out what’s happening right?” The meteor teases, “Anyways it’s about to get a whole lot worse,” As he’s sending the Messages, Grian wiggles to his feet and flaps wildly over to Mumbo where he tucks his head into his wings as the last remaining hermits on the island drop to their knees.

Tango screeches as he suddenly catches on fire, the flames spread around him, covering his body in white-hot pain. The heat is unbearable, peeling at his skin, clothes, and hair. He falls to the ground thrashing. Smoke fills his lungs as flames burn his mouth. Pieces of ash flake off his body, larger chunks follow, then entire limbs fall into piles of grey ash as he collapses into a mountain of ash and soot. All that remains is a red and orange bird about the size of a hawk.

Staring in shock as his small patches of scales slowly cover him Wels doesn’t notice as he starts growing. His armor becomes too tight on his body and the plate mail snaps off as he grows, the top of his head becoming about as high as the Cinnabon factory's roof. He pitches forwards as his legs change position, forcing him to land on all fours. Thankfully he had the premonition that something big was about to happen and he moved slightly away from the group as the transformations started.

Keralis drops to the ground and lays there as he shrinks down to Scar’s size, buzzing slightly, and clutching his abdomen as an extra pair of legs grow. He squirms uncomfortably as his mouth changes growing mandibles and he grows a stinger. In no time at all, he’s a bee.

Zedaph bleats in fear as his torso starts to be overtaken with thick wool. He draws his arms close to his chest as his fingers start to fuse together. As his face is covered in a thin layer of fur he flicks his tail. He lays down on the ground near to where Tango is asleep in a pile of warm ash.

Swallowing nervously, Iskall watches in terror as their arms turn a translucent green. As the color spreads Iskall can’t hold the human figure anymore and slowly collapses into a blob much like Jevin’s current form.

Looking over at the scene before him Impulse tenses as he prepares himself for whatever the meteor was about to do to him. It comes as a shock when the meteor sends a message, “And that’s that. I wonder how long it’ll take for your Vex to reverse this spell. As for you Impulse. I couldn’t just turn you into stone, even I am not that cruel, so you get lucky and are exempt from this. Good luck.”

…………..

Panic starts to rise from deep within Xisuma's chest as searing pain makes its way across his body. The armor he wore suddenly becomes much too tight as his muscles swell and grow nearly doubling in size. The force shattering the pieces of armor and scattering them around his body. Bones shift under his skin, growing more animalistic and predator-like. They rearrange themselves forcing Xisuma to land on all fours before he falls over onto his side. He curls in on himself as the transformation worms its way to his face and jaw. Teeth push their way through his gums and his mouth grows to account for them, reshaping his mouth into a snout. The half-mask snaps off from its place covering his nose and mouth as Xisuma gasps in pain. His neck stretches and grows longer.

His spines quiver as he winces, by the time his transformation is complete the other hermits are on their way. Knowing that if he starts panicking or does anything that makes him breathe deeply he’ll gain oxygen too quickly and probably pass out from an oxygen high. 

Concern for his family takes hold so he slowly picks his head up to look around. Cub is staggering to his feet trying to get over to Scar who is glowing softly. Grian is huddled on Mumbo’s arm looking scared, his head tucked under his wings. Zedaph is swiftly turning into a sheep and Tango is literally burning up.

The moment everyone has finished transforming Mumbo sends out a message.

MumboJumbo: Assistance Required. Shopping district.

Etho: You alright there Mumbo?

MumboJumbo: Negative, ask DocM77.

Xisuma can hear familiar footsteps thudding against the ground. He lets a low purring sound fill his throat as his brother pulls his head into his lap.

“X? Do we need to head to the end?” Exy asks as he takes in all the wrecked armor scraps littering the ground.

“I need to make sure all the hermits aren’t hurt?” Xisuma replies, but noticing his brother’s concerned face he continues, “I think I’ll be alright until then.”

“Xisuma, why are you growli-” Ex stops for a moment and says the next bit slowly, “I can’t understand a word you’ve said.”

Xisuma pulls his head back and looks at his brother as a look of absolute horror dawns in his eyes. Being very careful not to breathe in too much he rolls to his feet. Instantly he has to lay down again as he gets light-headed.

Exy takes one look at him and nods, “Yeah, you're going to the end. Knowing you, you probably said something about not wanting to leave them but for your sake please,” With this Exy takes hold of Xisuma’s communicator and teleports them both to the void.

As they arrive thin air floods Xisuma’s lungs. Coughs of relief leave his mouth, the air is back to a suitable oxygen level that won’t impact his body negatively. 

Exy turns to Xisuma, “I’m going to go help the others. I need you to stay put. I’ll come back once everyone is safe.”

Xisuma nods his head as he’s overcome with fatigue, he lays his head down on top of a small pile of end bricks and falls asleep.

……....

The second the transformations have finished Mumbo’s eyes dim as he sends a message out to the others letting them know it was safe to come in. The moment he finishes this he shuts down and goes dormant. 

Grian completely freaks out and tries to get his attention, until Tango comes over to try and help him. They end up flying to the potion tree and settle into a hole in the wood. 

The other hermits rush in to help. Exy runs over to Xisuma and teleports them both to the end. Before teleporting back to help. Biffa runs over to Jevin who waves him off and leads him over to the huge form of Wels. He’s about three times his usual size and is slumped against a wall. 

Rolling to his feet Beef carefully walks over to Zedaph and nudges the sheep with his nose. As he helps him get up Ren comes over and starts trying to help move him.

Impulse has picked Bdubs up and is running him into the Guardian shop so he’s away from all the noise. Bdubs makes a thankful noise as he bops Impulse gently with a wing.

There’s a clatter as Doc scrambles into the shop with Bdubs, he looks over at impulse, “Help Mumbo.”

“I’ll do that,” Impulse nods his void-like eyes glimmering.

Back outside Etho and XB are helping Jevin and Iskall get out of the sand patch they had gotten stuck in. They decide to head over to the slime shop. Stress has grabbed Iskall’s vest and brings it back to her base.

Cleo and Joe are helping Keralis get out of a small hole he had managed to get himself stuck in. Don’t ask him what happened, It just kinda happened. He was leaning against the wall when he transformed and had gotten himself stuck.

Scar and Cub are in town hall communicating with the Vex. The Vex are utterly horrified by what happened and they set out to gather enough magic so they can reverse what happened.

Tinfoil is helping Impulse bring Mumbo back online. They’ve figured out that to get him to activate someone needs to say Mumbo Jumbo and give him a command to complete.

False and Hypno have run over to help Biffa with calming Wels down. The large red dragon has started panicking, his wings and tail thrashing wildly. His claws digging deep furrows into the ground.

As the hours pass the hermits have managed to get everyone calm. They’ve figured out that all the transformed hermits can communicate with each other. Scar has the speak with animal spell and he helps deal with some of the translation issues.


	2. Well that was rude

As flames spread around Tango, engulfing his body in their painful hold. The heat is unbearable, peeling at his skin, clothes, and hair. He can’t help but shout in shock as he falls to the ground thrashing. Smoke starts to fill his lungs and fire burns his mouth. Each gasp of breath only brings in more and more flames, then ash. Pieces of ash flake off his body, then larger chunks, then entire limbs fall into piles of grey ash as he collapses into a mountain of ash and soot.

It is blissful to be separated from the painful heat. Slowly the panic and fear leave Tango's mind, letting him rest. Tango opens his eyes slowly as a warm feeling surrounds him, pulling his mind closer to life again. He wakes up covered in ash. A bit taken aback he shakes his head to clear the ash off and attempts to stand back up. Feathers now cover his body and the smaller size disorielents him greatly. Squawking in surprise he hops up onto unsteady legs and promptly falls back down.

As the others mill about the shopping district, trying to get a feel for their new forms although most were still laying on the ground, Tango flaps his wings shaking off the extra ash that clings to his body. He looks around to his friends, noticing some of the others struggling with their movement, stumbling over paws and extra limbs. His eyes land on a small brown parrot-like bird sitting on the shoulder of Mumbo. Grian, he deduces, is trying to snuggle close to the robot, chirping incessantly, flapping his wings, doing anything to gain the attention of the robot. Grian was growing more and more anxious over the lack of Mumbo’s attention before stopping in an instant when he realized the Robot had shut down. Drawing his wings close to his body, he silences himself. Tango looked closer, finding his eyesight had nearly doubled to what it had been, only to see Grian start to shiver and ruffle his feather to keep some warmth.

Suddenly something worms its way into his chest; he doesn’t like seeing his friend cold. With newfound determination, Tango marches his way to the feet of Mumbo. Once at the feet of the robot, he saw just how much taller Mumbo is compared to him but that made little difference to Tango. He flaps his wings to bring himself up to Mumbo’s eye level before landing on his shoulder the side opposite of Grian. 

Carefully he coos and chirps to get the small brown parrots attention; he’s not sure he could even talk to him so he sticks with bird sounds. Grian lifts his head to a far larger bird towering over him and shrinks in on himself, overcome with a sudden fear of the hawk-like bird. Again Tango coos as softly as he could, trying to seem less imposing. He flutters down to the ground and turns to look back at Grian. The brown bird shifts back and forth on his feet glancing between a dormant Mumbo, and Tango on the ground beckoning him to come down. 

‘What do I do?’ He thinks to himself, ‘What do I do?’ Tango continues to coo and chirp to him hoping he’ll look over and snap out of his stupor, 

“Please Grian, listen to me,” Tango chirps, finding his voice and tucking his wings in. Grian nods and is slowly convinced to hop down.

After a few moments of talking, Grian leaps off of Mumbo’s shoulder. He flutters down in a mess of feathers, lacking any of his usual glace, and lands next to Tango in a heap of dirt. Quickly Grian picks himself up and shakes what little dirt he can lose from his feathers before ultimately giving up with a frustrated huff. Tango lets a squawk of amusement leave his beak before leaning down to the little bird and starts to help clean the dust from Grian’s feathers. 

Grian starts to lean into the preening, content that the dirt is being removed from his body, and the warmth Tango gives off brings him closer to the phoenix. In a matter of minutes, any dirt stuck to his feather has been deftly removed by Tango’s preening. 

Once Tango finishes his work and double-checks to make sure that the younger bird is clean, he glances around at the remaining hermits in the area, all of them dealing with their transformations with varying degrees of success, when his eyes land on the tree that hosts Stress’ potion shop. Yet again a strange feeling grows in his chest and he finds the need to get Grian over to the tree, to make sure he’s safe. He quickly grabs the attention of the small bird and motions over to the tree with his beak. Grian looks at the tree, then back at Tango, then back to the tree, seemingly unsure if he understood the phoenix. His fears resolve themselves when Tango starts to flap his wings and raises a few feet off the ground, waiting for Grian to join him. 

Grian slowly opens his wings then looks back to Tango. 

“Come on, you’re the best flyer on the server. You can do this,” Tango encourages.

Confidence floods Grian’s chest and with familiar strength, he pushes himself off the ground. Tango squawks in excitement as Grian lifts off from the ground and comes to hover as best he can next to Tango. 

He starts to fly towards the tree, slowing his pace to let Grian remain near him with little effort on the small parrot’s side. The twisted branches of the potion shop come into view as Grian gains more confidence with his wings, flying all around Tango in sweeping glides and quick turns. 

Tango quickly pulls up to land on one of the larger branches of the tree while in the meantime, Grian remains in the sky. Tango starts to look around the tree, trying to find something, but not really knowing why. Then he spots it, a nook created by interlocking branches and protected from the elements by the thick canopy of the tree close to the trunk. 

He walks down the branch, picking up sticks and other plant matter. Carefully he starts to weave together sticks, twigs, and any other type of foliage into a simple nest. 

After he finishes the nest, he gathers soft moss and grass from around the tree adding to the inside to create a bed. As Tango works in the soft bedding into the nest he notices some of his feathers fall from their place. At first, he just adds them to the bedding. Tango sees a few feathers trail after Grian with every sharp turn the parrot takes, reminding him that both of them were in molt before the meteor transformed them. 

Finishing the nest Tango calls for Grian, “Grian come over here,” he calls out, watching the little bird dash about the tree and sky. Grian flits about until he hears Tango call out for him. He swoops by the tree and spots the phoenix by the truck and comes in for a landing perched just above the nest Tango has created. Grian hops around looking at the nest then back to Tango who sat just outside of it looking expectantly at the young bird. 

“You made a nest?” Grian questions looking at the sculpted mass of sticks and bedding. “Why?”

Tango shrugs as best he can, “I just had the feeling.” 

Grian hops down closer to Tango before going over to inspect the nest. It looks stable and the bedding does look very soft. Carefully Grian hops up to the side of the nest before completely descending into the body. He plops down in a warm spot. 

Tango looks very pleased with himself, puffing out his chest in pride. Grian lifts a wing to hide his face in embarrassment as Tango joins him in the nest. Tango tucks his wings to his sides, encasing Grian in one of them. The warmth giving off by the phoenix lulls Grian closer to Tango till he is snuggled closely to the side of the phoenix. Comfort envelopes him, then is promptly shattered by Tango’s beak pecking at him. 

“What are you doing?” Grian demands indignantly. 

“We're both in molt and I have already taken care of my feathers,” Tango replies, straightening some of his missed-placed feathers. 

“I can do it myself, you know. I don’t need your help,” Grian squawks, trying to tidy his tail feathers himself. 

“You and I both know that you have the self-care skills of a potato, so shush and let me finish,” Tango mutters, as he picks through his feathers.

Grian puffed his feather out in annoyance, “Well, you aren’t any better than I am, Mr. Tek.” 

“Hush, child,” he coos sarcastically. 

“Child?” Grain grumbles, “I am not a child.” 

“Compared to some you are, now stop squirming,” Tango says, finishing his preening of the small brown parrot. 

Slowly Grian’s eyes feel heavy and his breathing begins to drop to a measured pace, the feeling of being warm and safely tucked next to his friend pulls him close to sleep. The exhaustion of the day crashes into him and he falls unconscious. 

Tango feels Grian’s descent into sleep and can tell he will be following the other close behind. Sleep claims him from the chaos of the day as he wraps the parrot in a protective embrace. 

…………..

Zedaph, unsure of what to do now that Tango has gone with Grian and Impulse is helping Mumbo get back online and functional, he starts making his way towards Beef. His legs are unsteady though and he ends up stumbling right into Ren after only a couple of steps.

The wolf looks up and barks happily giving Zedaph a prod with his nose, nudging him to a more stable standing position. A primal part of Zedaph quivers looking into the eye of the werewolf, but the gleam of joy and warmth in the brown eyes removes any fear threatening to settle in his bones. 

“You alright, my dude?” Ren asks as he walks over wagging his tail excitedly. 

“Oh,” Zedaph starts with a huff and looking rather grumpy, “I am doing just dandy right now. I woke up this morning expecting to be turned into a full sheep.” 

Ren barks out a laugh and flops down next to the peeved sheep in a lump of brown fur. “Can’t be all bad, can it.” 

Zedaph turns away in an exacerbated stomp only to stumble over his newly acquired front hooves and lands on the mycelium caked ground, “Yes, yes it is.” 

Ren rises again and trots over to the ram still lying on the ground. Carefully he pulls Zed to his feet. 

“Thanks,” Zed says, continuing on his path towards Beef, leaning heavily on Ren.

“Any day, my dude,” Ren replies, trailing after the ram. Beef is having a much easier time walking compared to Zedaph, as he already had the leg work figured out. Beef’s ears flick towards the pair as they approach the steer. 

“Hey guys,” Beef greets them in an exhausted groan. 

“Transformation took a lot of you, huh,” Ren asks

“I feel like I was hit by a truck,” Beef replies dully. 

“Yeah, transformation can really eat up your energy. How hungry are you guys?” Ren asks. 

Both Zedaph and Beef took a moment to think, then their stomachs replied for them. 

“Very, now that I think about it,” Beef says as he stands up and shakes his tail gently. 

“That’s what I thought.” Ren begins to start nudging the pair towards the shops, “Transformation tends to leave your body needing food after spending so much energy. Like for me when I need to transform, the first half-hour is just getting my energy back but then I am ready to go all night long.” Ren continues to usher the duo down the store lined streets as he talks. 

Sometimes Beef would start to drift away from the group only to be brought back by Ren flanking him, still continuing his story. Zed notices then slows his pace only to be nudged by Ren to stay with Beef.

Beef and Zed look at each other then back to the werewolf and share a smile.

“Hey Ren,” Zed speaks up. 

“Yes?” Ren 

“You’re herding us,” Beef laughs out. They both look back to the werewolf to find a flustered Ren lying on the ground, his front legs crossed over his head. 

“I'm so sorry, I didn’t know I was doing anything,” Ren squeaks. 

Zeb and Beef laugh at their friend’s mild embarrassment. 

“You’re fine, Ren. It’s just funny.” Zedaph chuckles. “Where were you taking us anyways?” 

Ren peeks from out behind his paws, “I was thinking that we could get you some food from the barge?” 

“Actually, I think Doc’s shop sells fruit.” Beef suggests. 

“Oh,” Ren perks up, “Let’s head there then.” Ren jumps up and takes off down the road and around the corner, tail wagging frantically. The pair follow behind as fast as their limbs allow. The Five Goats comes into view with a very energetic wolf running around the shop front as they turn the corner. 

Ren happily sits with them as they retrieve a variety of fruit and vegetables. He talks with them throughout, loosely chatting at any given topic. The group continues to talk until Cleo is sent to retrieve them. 

“We should stay together through the night just in case the meteor gets any bright ideas,” She explains, leading the way back to a temporary camp set up for the hermits. 

Nightfall approaches quickly as hermits are starting to bed down for the night. Zedaph breaks off to go sleep near Impulse while Beef does the same with Etho and the rest of the NHO. Ren finds a patch of soft mycelium and circles it a few times clearing it of any rocks or debris before settling onto the ground. It’s not the first time Ren has fallen asleep under the moon, but if he’s being honest with himself, he thinks, he has never been more peaceful then when he’s surrounded by friends. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope everyone has enjoyed reading and has a good day/night.


	3. Well that happened.

As the moon rises beyond its midpoint, a small figure begins its plan. Scar emerges from his hiding spot in the omega store and begins his way over to Stress’s potion shop. Slowly, as to not disturb the sleeping birds who had taken residence in the tree the day before, he collects the feathers and tucks them away within an empty shulker box. Silently he closes the now-full box and makes his way to grab the next part of this prank.

Scar’s excitement grows quickly, each step bringing him closer to playing the prank. Cackles leave him as the honey shop comes into view. He rushes over the Honey Pot with little sound. Quickly he scoops up the honey into a different shulker and exits the shop with great haste. 

Quietly he makes his way back to the sleeping piles of hermits that stayed on the island. He gazes out among the group. 

“Who to choose? Who to choose?” he questions. He floats over his sleeping options and thinks. 

“Doc would be fun but he would be too angry afterward. Maybe Mumbo, the brit always liked the sticky substance. Perhaps Beef or Zedaph, no... not good enough for this prank.” He continues to lazily float above the group considering his choices, then his eyes land on the perfect victim.

Ren.

The werewolf was just off the side of the group curled in on himself sleeping with little care. His thick fur would be an absolute mess with the honey and feathers. Laughs leak from the Vex’s mouth as excitement boiled up in his chest. 

He pulls the honey-filled shulker from his inventory and rises until he’s hovering over the hapless werewolf. He grins, his mouth twisting into a horrific smile as his eyes glow a bright blue. Vex magic sparks from the open hand casting a spell on the werewolf. Ren's muscles relax further as a sleep spell weaves a tight hold on his consciousness. The magic pulsing through his hands heats the honey-filled box, letting the honey flow easier. Carefully he floats from the tip of Ren’s nose to his tail coating the thick fur in a thicker layer of honey. 

Scar softly cackles as the honey sinks into the fur already creating mats in the coat of the werewolf. The honey drips down to his paws and slides across his body to his stomach. After the honey is thoroughly covering the wolf, Scar pulls the box of gathered feathers from his inventory and shakes it open. A cascade of feathers falls upon Ren’s body becoming stuck within the mess of fur and honey. Scar laughter grows louder as he gazes upon the honey-and-feathers werewolf. Too loud. 

Zedaph is roused from his slumber curdled next to Impulse by high pitched laughter. 

“Hello?” he sleepily bleats out. 

Startled by the sudden statement, Scar loses his grip on the box of feathers, and his concentration slips from the sleep spell. The box crashes onto Ren’s head, waking up instantly with a confused growl. Zedaph leaps to his hooves at the growl stumbling into Impulse, awaking him with a startled grunt of pain as Zed’s hoof lands on his stomach rousing more hermits from their sleep. 

Ren goes to rub at the impact point of the box and finds that his limbs are a bit heavier than when he fell asleep as well as harder to move. Ren reaches to rub the growing bump on his head when his paw meets a sticky and weird texture mess of fur. He pulls back his paw to see it coated in honey and feathers. 

He spins around looking for whatever did this to him in confusion. A laugh brings his attention to the small Vex floating just a few feet above him. Scar’s laughter stirs something in Ren. Something deep and primal. His confusion turns to anger as growls and barks leave him. The remaining hermits snap awake from the loud, deep barking.

Ren lunges at the Vex and Scar’s laughter is brought to a sudden stop. Hastily Scar flies higher to get away from the enraged werewolf only to be snapped at again. A fearful yelp escapes him as he tries to fly somewhere safe. Ren quickly gives chase to the blue spirit’s retreat. They crash through the other hermits nearly knocking some over as Scar zig zags to attempts to lose Ren. 

A chorus of yells and screams only adds to the chaos. Scar races up towards his gardening shop finding shelter among the large leaves of the monstrous plant. 

Ren, in his blind pursuit of the Vex only watching where the creature was and not was in front of him, crashes into the glass window of Scar’s shop. Glass shatters on impact as Ren falls through the window cutting into his skin and lands in the now glass, dirt, and foliage-covered store floor. Bits of glass cut into Ren more as he falls in a heap on the ground. The impact knocks the anger from his mind, replacing it with throbbing pain. 

The other hermits rush over to help the now whimpering wolf. Stress runs over the side of the wolf to pull large shards of glass cutting into Ren’s body and applies some pressure to stop the blood flow. She is soon joined by different hermits doing the same. With each shard, Ren lets out a gasp or whimper in pain.

Soon after, the sound of whimpers are overtaken by hysterical laughter. Tears begin to form, creating a horrible song of confliction. The sounds echo from within the greenhouse causing even more unease. Cub slinks over to where Scar is and watches the grin twist to an ashamed frown on the Vex’s face. Scar turns to Cub and sobs, no longer laughing, “I’m so sorry, I didn’t mea- It wasn’t supposed to hurt anyone, but it did and I can’t do anything to help, it’s ba- it’s so bad, I’m sor-” Scar gasps for breath, but the words and tears continue to spill out. 

“Why do I- why is it still funny? It’s not, it shouldn’t be- I don’t like this, I’m sorry- please make it stop, please, please make it stop being funny- I hurt Ren, what if I hurt everyone? I don’t want to.. I don-” the words are uncontrollable, becoming more incoherent as time goes by. Tears keep rolling down Scar’s face, and the sounds of both his messy crying and overwhelming emotions echoing around them become more and more oppressive.

Recognizing that his friend needs some help Cub pads over and curls around the sobbing Vex, “It’s the influence of the Vex. C’mon, let's go somewhere where there’s not so much magic. Apologize to Ren after he’s been taken care of.”

Scar nods duly as he settles on Cub’s back. “Thank you, thank you, I am so, so sorry-” he continues to ramble and apologize. Cub carefully takes Scar away from the crowd of hermits, walking through the empty streets of the shop district to the undeveloped part of the island Scar had claimed earlier in the season. The light and sound fade away the further the two get from the district till just the sound of crying gasps and Cub’s paws scraping against the ground. Then Cub comes to a stop and lays down, curling his paws under neither himself but remaining upright.

“Scar,” he says softly, “Scar, come on let’s talk. We’re away from the rest of the hermits and the magic.” 

Scar peels away from Cub cautiously, coming to a stop at Cub’s eye level. Scar hung his head in guilt and fear. Tear tracks streamed down his face and he curled in on himself from the self-scrutiny. 

Something breaks in Cub seeing one of his closest friends so small and scared. 

“Hey, you’re fine,” he soothes. 

“No, it’s not! I’m not fine!” Scar cries out. “I hurt Ren. I hurt my friend, and-” He gasps, “I thought it was funny. But it's not funny.” Fresh tears roll down his cheeks. 

“Scar listen to me,” Cub states, “The Vex did that to Ren, the meteor made you become a Vex, you were not in your right mind when you pranked Ren. You did not know Ren was going to chase after you. You didn’t know he was going to crash into the shop’s window.” 

Scar wipes some tears away, “I know, but I feel terrible for hurting Ren.” 

“You can say you’re sorry to him. Everyone can understand that you weren’t yourself. We’re all being affected by the meteor.” Cub bumps his nose against the small Vex in his own form of a hug. Scar lets out a small cheerfully giggle, “Stop no, your nose is wet. It tickles.” 

Cub moves his head back from the Vex with a chuff. Scar floats over the top of cub and sinks in Cub’s main right between his ears in an exhausted lump. The Vex burrows into the warm sandy yellow fur. They sit together till Scar breath evens out more to a calm pace, Scar braiding and unbraiding small pieces of Cub’s mane. 

“You feelin’ better?” Cub asks. 

“Yes,” Scar replies, “And sleepy.” A small yawn escapes him, confirming his statement. 

“You ready to go back?” 

Scar pauses in his ministrations, “I guess... no time like the present.” 

“Ren will understand, the others will understand. You have me to help too, don’t forget that,” Cub says walking back towards the cluttered shopping district. 

Scar sinks further into the lion's mane, the pulse of Cub’s heart and walking acting as a lullaby for the Vex. 

‘Maybe I’ll take a little nap before we get there,” Scar thinks to himself as he slips into sleep. 

……….

If someone would’ve told False a couple of years ago that in the future she would be washing honey and feathers out of her shifted and hurt werewolf friend’s fur, on a grass filled mushroom biome, she might’ve given them a sarcasm filled side-eye. But now that she was actually doing just that, she realized that it was a type of weird that only could happen on Hermitcraft. 

Joe had found his way over to help while he had seen that she was carrying a bucket of water over to the victim of the prank and its aftermath, Ren, who is attempting to pick some of the feathers that he can reach out of his matted fur. It’s not going well as he’s planned mostly just pushing the feathers and honey around, mixing it further.

The two got to work with their collected materials, finding or asking to borrow most of them, which consisted of a bucket of water, a couple of sponges, some soap, a pair of tweezers to get the remainder of the glass out, and a spare pet brush that they got one of the hermits to go and retrieve from Joe’s place at the Strait of Joebraltar. The two hermits positioned themselves next to the wolf; False holding onto the tweezers, while Joe sat next to her on sponge duty. 

“You’re certain that you don’t want me on the tweezers, right?” Joe motions towards the object in question in False’s hand. 

“I can handle a sword better than you can, so I’m fairly sure I can take out a couple of pieces of glass.” Patting the fur next to the shard of glass she was focusing on as a warning to Ren, she carefully pulls out the first shard of glass. A whimper is heard from the hermit in front of the two as she places the sharp object into a piece of cloth they found. While she does this Joe takes the sponge in hand and cleans the wound with water to remove anything left in or around it.

Continuing this process in quiet concentration the two make their way around Ren, removing the remaining sharp objects from his flesh. Ren moves every so often when they hit a deeper piece of glass, a small whimper replacing what would likely be hisses of pain in his human form. 

“So what do you think we should do next?” False asks in concern for Ren.

“Let's start getting the honey off of him,” Joe decides, as he starts to move him and their equipment over to a smaller lake nearby, patting Ren on the back as a signal to follow him over. He gets the wolf form of their friend into the shallow pool of water, taking off his shoes and rolling up his pants before stepping in himself. False picks up the glass shard pouch, placing the tied up cloth in her inventory to be more safely discarded later, and follows behind Joe and Ren with the bucket of water.

“Well then let’s start this, honey is not gonna be fun to get out of his fur. To be fair honey isn’t fun to get out of any fur, but we’re gonna have to watch the areas where the glass was and make sure to wash them out after.” Joe takes one of the sponges and starts to wash the sticky substance out of Ren’s heavily matted fur as he talks, pulling the feathers out as he goes. 

“Yeah this isn’t exactly what I planned for my morning but I’m not gonna leave Ren like this all day. It seems like something that would not be fun to deal with. I’d hate having something like this congealed mess in my hair.” False rattles on as she joins Joe, slipping off her shoes before stepping into the shallow pool herself. 

As they get to rinsing the soap out from Ren’s fur, they move to toss the sponges back into the now-empty bucket. Making sure all of the items they had used ended up in there for easy clean up later. Joe picks up the pet brush, planning on turning around and helping to get out the tougher knots that didn’t untangle themselves when removing the honey, but as he does so he finds himself getting into a situation that he usually finds himself in while at the dog sanctuary as Ren shakes the water out of his fur himself. Ren’s shaking leaves Joe chuckling in surprise as False has a shocked but amused look on her face, neither of the pair expecting their friend to do that, but now both covered in the shaken off the water.

“Did he just do that?” False asks, still in a state of shocked amusement. As she looked at the now slightly ashamed Ren, he realized what he’d done, and his ears flattened down on his head and a whine escaping his throat in something similar to an apology. 

“Indeed I think he just did. It’s not like he did it on purpose though, dogs do that to get the water out of their fur, it’s a lot faster than waiting on it to dry. It happens all the time with the dogs at the sanctuary.” False hums a slight agreement at Joe’s somewhat explanation before taking the brush from his hand getting to work on some of the worse knots in the werewolf’s fur.

“I think we should leave the cuts alone for the most part, since we don’t know when any of them will change back, and we don’t have the proper materials on hand. Just keep them clean and deal with them later with proper materials if this whole thing persists. Is that okay with you too Ren?” False asks look towards the dog in question as he nods in agreement with a slight wag of the tail, understanding the plan.    
  
“Yeah I can come back with some more appropriate supplies later and dress the wounds but for now they’ve stopped bleeding mostly, so they should be fine for now. The dogs can get into all kinds of trouble so I have a small stockpile of materials back at my place I can bring later.”   
  
“Sounds like a plan.” False agrees as she hands Joe back the pet brush before making her way back to dry land to finish picking up what they had used. As she does so, however, she spots Cub heading back into the main area and waves to him. The lion looking fellow spots this with a head tilt and changes his direction towards the trio on the bank of the small pond drying off with borrowed towels. As he makes his way over she spots the small blue form on his upper back that appears to be sleeping.

“Oh, hey Cub. I didn’t see you there at first.” Joe looks towards the hermit coming closer to their group. The hermit in question lets out a small chuff in greeting, laying himself, and therefore the second hermit on his back, down near the group. The hermit on his back, and in his mane, moves as Cub stops but doesn’t stir yet. 

“Well, I think me and Joe need to not only dry ourselves off but pick up some of the stuff lying around here, so we’ll both be taking our leave now.” False moves to get up with this statement, picking up the bucket with some of the materials in it, pulling up Joe after her, and grabbing her shoes. She nods away as Joe gives her a look of confusion and understanding crosses his face as he follows her towards what was becoming considered the main camp in the shopping district away from the three transformed hermits.

“Hey Ren, how are you feeling?” Cub asks as the werewolf in question makes himself comfortable in the space next to him, watching his friends leave to return or pick up their equipment.

“Well man, I’m for sure a lot better now that all of that sticky goop is out of my fur.” Cub notices him glancing over to the Vex responsible lying down on his back.

“He said he wanted to apologize but I’ll let him do that himself when he’s awake but for now I’m gonna let him sleep cause this whole situation has worn him out. The two sides of him were definitely both not on the same page for that. Well, he can explain what went through his mind but the Vex influence isn’t anything to mess around with, that much I can assure you.”

“This whole thing is new for most of you so I can understand that whole predicament, especially since similar reasoning is behind why I crashed through the window. Instincts overtaking everything else, I was tracking and in pursuit. If you don’t pay attention to where you’re going you can get hurt.” Ren’s tail pats the ground as he speaks, and his head moves to watch Scar as he turns over in his sleep.

A few moments later he slowly wakes up. He gives a slight startle as he sees Ren looking at him, falling backward off of Cub in surprise, before peeking back up over the lion body of his friend.    
  
“Hey, Ren. Nice to see you here.” A tired voice shakily makes its way from Scar as he slowly pushes himself up to leaning on Cub, tears already welling up in his eyes from looking at his friend that he had unintentionally hurt, “Look I just wanted to say how sorry I am for getting you hurt like that. It was just supposed to be-” he paused to take a breath in as tears flowed from his eyes, “a small little prank, and then all of a sudden you had crashed through the glass. I only stopped laughing when I had started crying, yet some sadistic part of me still found it funny. I could have seriously hurt you. I feel so bad for what I did to you still.”

Ren pulled himself up, stretching his back out, before making his way over to Cub where Scar now sat down leaning against his side. Scar had tear tracks down his face as small silent hiccups ran through his body from the tears he wiped away. Ren made his way over to the Vex before a small whine was made in the back of his throat from seeing his friend like this. Ears now laid down on his head, the werewolf placed his head onto his much smaller friend’s head, like a hug without the arms. 

“Look dude it couldn’t have gone much worse than that. Especially with such a harmless prank as honey and feathers and everyone on the server within a shout or two’s reach. I’m tellin’ you now that I forgive you, it’s just a bit of fun gone wrong.” Ren’s voice rumbled in his chest as he spoke to Scar who in turn found himself throwing his arms around Ren’s neck in a rendition of a hug, small hiccups still escaping from the Vex.    
  
“Thank you.” Scar spoke, voice muffled and still scratchy from crying, into Ren’s fur. The werewolf’s tail in turn wagging wildly back and forth as he enjoyed the modified hug with his currently smaller friend. 

……….

So far, Wels hasn’t been having a very good time. It’s difficult for him to move in his full dragon form as it’s huge compared to what he’s used to. He’s not even that big by dragon standards; he's on the small side for a young red dragon, not even full-grown as Joe had decided. After the first night’s Vex related shenanigans he had dragged himself away from the main group until everything had calmed down. He still left the following night just to air on the side of caution.

He stretches out like a cat and stands up. As he makes his way back to the others something catches his eye. Diamonds. 

Diamonds glittering in the large trees leading up to the town hall. Something inside of him stirs as he stares transfixed at the glittering blue gems. His tail flicks excitedly as he follows the trail up the steps and into the town hall easily fitting through the door. As he spots the glistening pile of diamonds he instinctively curls around the middle of the pile and lays his head down on the seat.

He stays this way for quite a while until Scar and Cub enter the room.

The small Vex immediately shoots into the air, “Hey, that’s my pile.”

Wels picks his head up and looks at Scar breaking free of the instincts for a moment, “I know, I just can’t bring myself to leave. It’s my horde,” The last bit is hissed as Scar crosses his arms and pouts.

“But... my diamonds...” Scar laments as he sinks to the Vex magic flooring. 

Cub pads over and moves Scar off the ground, “Wels? What if I give you a pile of gold?”

“Gold?” The dragon’s eyes light up thoughtfully, “I would move.”

“Alright, you come with me and we can get someone to go into my shop and make a pile.”

Wels scrambles off the diamond throne and follows Cub down to find someone with actual hands. Scar settles into the diamond and pulls one out to chew on; his Vex instincts and tastes have increased quite a bit since the meteor did this to them. 

The first person they come across is TFC, the man is watching Zedaph attempt to follow Impulse up a ladder. He’s not doing too well, he’s just putting his front hooves on a rung and bleating insistently.

As TFC notices the pair standing nearby he turns to them, “And what can I do for you?”

Cub nudges Wels into speaking as he can still speak in human languages, “Oh, Um we were wondering if you would mind getting the gold from Cub’s shop and making a pile out of it?”

“I can do that,” Tinfoil decides, “I’m going to assume you’re trying to hoard shiny things.”

“Yes,” both the hermits say in unintentional unison. TFC chuckles, turning towards the gold shop. 

“These kids are going to be the death of me,” he laughs to himself. 

………..

Xisuma paces back and forth his tail flicking anxiously. EX has yet to come back to the End after he left in a hurry the day prior to help the other hermits. He had woken up the empty void with no clear way to communicate with the others as his communicator was left in the shopping district during his transformation. He had no idea what was happening to everyone in the overworld as panic gripped his chest in it’s tight hold. 

Then a rumble in his throat started to revierdate through his body. Slowly his pacing came to a stop and felt the vibration running around his chest and head.

Purring, the end beast realized, he was purring. It was deep but quiet, like a distance motor. The worried hermit laid down on the smooth end stone, listening to himself purr. 

The anxiety that was coursing through his veins began to bleed out as the purring continued till after a few minutes it slowed to a stop. Within the newfound peace, Xisuma takes a deep breath relishing in the End’s thinner air. It’s a rarity that he was able to breathe without the assistance of his face mask that breathing unobstructed was a luxury to him. 

‘This is nice,’ he thinks to himself. Minutes past where he just breathes, deep long breaths of the End’s air, or feels the smooth rocky texture of the end stone beneath him. He pulls himself up from the floor and begins to walk around the island at a more casual pace. He can feel how his claws grip onto the gaps in the endstone and how his tail keeps his balance in his quadiped form. For the most part, the current island he’s on is barren, with small chorus flowers sprouting from the endstone. Xisuma looks out into the distance, finding his eyesight to have increased with his transformation. He could see the far island in crisp detail. 

He saw a large island just about 30 meters away from his little island, with small islands dotting the space between them. The closest island couldn’t have been more than 10 meters away, X figured. Xisuma started to pace again, but instead of worry, thought caused him to walk from one end of the island to the next. He kept his eyes set on the island and slowly backed away from the edge of the cliff face then took off. 

Claws provided traction, new muscles and bones work in tandem pushing him forward, tail kept him balanced in his dash, everything was working together. Then with the edge growing closer and closer, his hind legs land just a foot away from the edge and coils back only to push off with great force. His leap carries him closer to the island still in his sights and lands his front paws onto the surface of the other island. His claws drag grooves into the ground as he stops. Xiusma looks back to the small island he was left on and pants with exerted from the force he called upon to perform the jump. 

He rapidly gathers his strength to leaps between the floating planes till he reaches the largest island, panting a bit after the bounds between islands; he wasn’t tired, just unused to the movement. He looked around the island, bustling with more activity than the other one he was placed on. Enderman walking about the tall stalks of the chorus and even an End city lay towards the eastern side of the island.

Xisuma wanders around the large island, waving between endermen and chorus plants till he hears a voice ring through the quiet End. 

“Xisuma!” it cries out, “Xisuma, where are you?” His ears perk up toward the voice and turn to face where the sound is coming from. He looks into the void sky, scanning the horizon for the source of the cries, then he spots red armor among the yellow and purple features of the End. 

“Over here, Exy!” Xisuma roars out finding his voice, “I’m over here!” 

He can see his brother whip around towards him and quickly glances back down at his arm. He vanishes from sight quickly, only to reappear a few feet in front of Xisuma. 

“Oh thank goodness, you’re fine,” Exy says rushing towards the end beast. Xisuma lowers himself closer to the ground as his brother crashes into his side. “I panicked when I couldn’t find you. How on earth did you get over here?”

“I jumped between islands,” he explains.

Exy gasped, “How-, what? I, you, what? That is the least crazy thing I’ve dealt with in the past 24 hours, it’s fine.” 

Xisuma chuckles hearing his brother so exacerbated. “What happened to the others?” He asked. 

“Well,” Exy starts, “After I had left you in the end, everyone finished their transformations and we had to retrieve Keralis from being stuck in a hole. Wels claimed the throne but we bribed him to leave it alone. We lost Grian and Tango for a bit but found them in Stress’ tree.” Exy listed out counting on his fingers, “Oh and last night Scar pranked Ren with this honey and feather prank but Ren chased after him into the gardening shop and then Ren crashed through a window and got cut up.” 

“What.” Xisuma states. 

“The rest of the hermits were dealing with the aftermath when I remembered you and I came to the end.” 

Xisuma sits back on his haunches confused, “Wait, how can you understand me?”

“Scar has a spell,” Exy explains waving his hand dismissively.

Nodding Xisuma bobs his head, “Did you bring food?”

Exy grins, “I sure did.” He begins to pull steak and pork chops from his inventory, setting it on the ground. Xisuma starts eating, just now noticing how hungry he is now and devours the meat. 

After finishing his meal he rises to his full size, over twice as tall as Exy, “Ok then, let’s get back to the overworld.” He nudges Exy as if to add to his points. 

“You can’t be serious X,” he states flatly. 

“I am incredibly serious. The others need my help. I’m their admin and I need to protect them. Now let’s get going.” 

“Xisuma, you have no way to breathe in the overworld. Your mask is destroyed and making a new one for your face now will take too much time.” Xisuma growls at his brother. “X, please be reasonable.” 

He turns away from his brother and flicks his tail in annoyance. Exy sighs before walking in front of Xisuma. “I know, I just feel useless…”

“Things are ok, everyone’s adjusting and figuring things out. Nothing server-wide has broken and if worse comes to worst we can have Joe do admin stuff.”

“He knows what he’s doing,” Xisuma laughs flicking his tail at his brother. The pair sit in silence for a while.

“Wait, do you think you could fix your mask?” Exy asks slowly formulating a plan. 

“If I have all the pieces I could probably magic it back together.”

“I’ll be right back I promise,” at this Exy disappears after he types a command into his communicator. So he can collect the different mask parts. He’s gone for about five minutes, “Ok here, fix it.”

Xisuma stares blankly at the helmet parts scattered at his feet. Carefully he concentrates and slowly the mask reconstructs itself. Once it's complete he realizes something.

It’s far too small for his face and it wouldn’t be able to help him.

“Can’t you change its size?” Exy asks as he picks up the mask and holds it out.

He shakes his head sadly, and Exy tugs his helmet off and gives him a hug, “I’m going to stay with you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope y’all have enjoyed reading and we’ll see ya next week!


	4. Meteor gets Wrecked.

It’s been days since the meteor had fully transformed the affected hermits. For the most part, the hermits were doing alright considering the situation they found themselves in. It wasn’t too unusual to see a few hermits, both affected and not, hanging around each other at their bases or the shopping district. However, what was strange was the ever-present robot following a few feet behind any given hermit. 

Mumbo would never be far behind a hermit, standing at attention with his arms folded neatly behind his back awaiting instruction. To many of the hermits, it was unnerving to see the Redstone so quiet and placid. 

Joe begins his day, as he had for these last few, rising with the sun to check up on the hermits. He had already checked in on a few hermits when he was passing through the shopping district, but then he runs into something nearly knocking himself over only to have quickly been grabbed by a metal arm.

“My apologies Mr. Joseph Hills,” Mumbo says, pulling Joe to an upright position, “It appears that I was in your way.”

“Thank you Mumbo,” Joe replies, glancing at his communicator then back to the robot, “Why are you all alone?”

“It would seem that no one is in need of my services so I moved to a location where I would not be in the way of any of the hermits,” Mumbo explains, “Clearly I was obscuring your way, Mr. Hills.”

“Oh no, you weren’t in my way Mumbo, I just wasn’t lookin’ where I was going. There’s no reason to apologize,” Joe brushes off. 

“Well, I shall let you continue you on with your duties,” Mumbo says, returning to his still standing position. Joe starts to walk away when he stops in his pace. 

Joe turns towards the robot, “Mumbo would you like to come with me while I make my rounds on the server?” The robot moves from his position in the shop district and begins to trail after Joe. Joe continues his normal walking speed, checking his notebook for reminders he needed to check on before glancing behind him. Mumbo remained five feet behind Joe. He stops walking waiting for the robot to catch up with him, but Mumbo stops five feet away for Joe.

“Do you require assistance with something Mr. Hills,” Mambo asks. Joe cringes at the formality, he was used to the younger hermit’s casual greetings that the Mr.'s and Miss.'s he addressed everyone by was unnerving as best. 

“You can walk with me Mumbo. You don’t need to keep your distance,” Joe assures. 

Mumbo comes forward to Joe’s position. Now joined by Mumbo at his side he continued on his obligations. They check up on all affected hermits throughout the day and even manage to make it to the End to check up on Xisuma and Exy. Throughout the day Mumbo offers to carry almost anything that Joe encounters or rattles any information that Joe might have needed with unfounded ease. 

Exhausted by the day’s work Joe returns to the winery drained of all energy with Mumbo in tow. Joe felt wrong leaving the robot hermit alone in the shopping district after he had finished his rounds so he took Mumbo with him home. The pair enter into the mansion, Joe dropping his supplies into a random chest and Mumbo simply standing in the doorway. 

“I’m going to get some food and a nap, if you would care to join Mumbo,” Joe offers, gesturing towards a guest room.

“I do not require sustenance or sleep,” Mumbo states blankly.

Joe raises an eyebrow at this, “Recharge?”

“Question not understood, please elaborate?” 

“Don’t you need to regain your energy, like refilling your batteries?” Joe questions. 

“I have no need, I am powered by Redstone there is no need to ‘recharge’ as you say. If I am not in service, I power down till I am needed,” the robot explains. 

Gears turn in Joe’s head wanting to do something that would keep the robot active, even if it was for Joe’s stake not to see the once kind awkward man so unnaturally stiff and awaiting command. 

“What would you like to do, while I get some rest?” Joe asks. 

“What tasks would you assign me?” the robot asks back. 

Joe groans, pinching the bridge of his nose. ‘I’m going to end up talking in circles at this point.’ 

“Mumbo Jumbo,” Joe starts, “I would like you to find something to do that you enjoy while I take a nap. And you have to tell me what it was when I wake up. You are not to power off at this time.” Joe cringed at having to use the command, it felt wrong to order a friend around but he needed Mumbo to fight against the programming somehow. 

“Understood, Mr. Hills, enjoy your nap while I complete the task at hand,” Mumbo says, taking a small bow in recognition of the command. 

Shaking his head slightly Joe walks back to his room and face plants into his bed. Exhaustion leaves his sleep mercifully peacefully, with no confusing dreams or waking thoughts. When he does wake up the sun is just skimming the horizon in it’s decent. 

Joe rouses from his slumber with a groggy sigh and pushed up from the bed to go check on Mumbo. He begins his search in the mansion finding no sign of the robot till he reaches his storage room. Every block had been moved, shuffled, and organized. Everything had a place and everything was in its place. Joe chuckles a bit, Mumbo had always been one to form organization even if his own storage room was messy. His train of thought is pulled away from the meticulous storage system to outside by a machinal sound. 

Joe follows the sound outside to see his robotic friend working away at some sort of Redstone machine. The tall robot double-checking carefully made lines of red dust and perfectly placed pistons for any flaws. He paces around his contraption is calculated thought, working through the design. 

Joe slowly walks up to the robot, simply enjoying the graceful machinal placement of the Redstone components. A smile spreads on his face, Mumbo looks like Mumbo with red-stained hands and small flyaway hairs sticking up from his normally pristine hair. His eyes are burgundy in deep thought. Joe chuckles literally almost seeing the gears turn in Mumbo's head and startles the usually unflappable robot. 

“Oh, Joe,” Mumbo turns away from his machine to face the older man, “I did not realize you had completed your nap.” 

“Just woke up a few minutes ago.” Joe stretches and yawns away any remaining pulls of sleep. “What are ya’ workin’ on there?”

Mumbo turns back towards his machine, “It’s a Redstone door. I do hope that you are not angry with me, I had to procear the piece of the door and I went through your resources.” He quickly spins around to Joe, “I can deconstruct the door if you are upset with me using your resources,” Mumbo stammers out. Joe could see the faint hints of blue and light pink swirl in Mumbo’s eyes. 

Joe laughs, “You’re fine Mumbo. Feel free to take what you need, I don’t use much Redstone anyways.” 

Mumbo tilts his head, processing the man’s words. “Oh, thank you, Joseph.” 

The robot caustically returns to his work, glazing back to Joe then to his machine multiple times before settling into a comfortable workspace again. Joe slips back into the mansion to retrieve his notebook and a small snack before returning the robot. They sit together for a while in relative silence, Joe’s pen sliding across the paper of his notebook and small muttered words form Mumbo being the only sounds around as the sun sets beyond the coastline. 

Mumbo pulls back from his Redstone machine, gazing upon his work. The robot lets out a small triumphant noise pulling Joe out of his concentration. He quickly wraps up his writing and closes the journal. 

“Are you done?” Joe asks. 

Mumbo’s head bounces a little in a nod, “Yes, it should be completed.” Joe can’t help but feel at ease with Mumbo’s usual excitement rather than the sterility of the robotic transformation. “Do you want to see the door work?” Mumbo asks a barely-there yellow ring surrounding his pupils. 

“Go right ahead.” 

Mumbo pushes the button to activate the door and steps back a few paces. They wait a few seconds, nothing happens. Mumbo tilts his head in confusion. 

A few more seconds pass, and nothing happens. 

“It should work.” 

More times, and yet nothing happens. A small grumble escapes the robot as he moves forward to the machine to inspect it when a horrible clatter of metal and stone clash together and a puff of Redstone powder explodes out towards the pair. Joe being farther back quickly covers his eye and saves himself from the powder storm. Mumbo is not as lucky, being blasted by the large plume of dust. 

Joe bats away the loose powder and rushes up the Mumbo. “Are you alright?”

The robot in question is covered from torso to the tip of his head is a layer of red dust. He stands there in stunned silence, Joe growing concerned the silence continues till laughter bubbles up. 

Hardy, breathy laughs escape the robot. His once cold voice begins to warm by the laughter as they grow into larger roars. Joe finds himself joining in with Mumbo, smiling at how Mumbo begins to act like himself once again. 

The laughing continues till Mumbo pulls himself up to a more upright position. 

“Well, that certainly was exciting wasn’t it ?” Mumbo asks no one in particular. 

Mumbo returns back to work, fixing whatever bug that caused the mishap leaving Joe to gather his thoughts. Joe beams as he watches his friend begin to rework and replace the broken piece with the same grace as before. But he smirks when he sees Mumbo mess up a bit and restart a line or two. Same clumsy grace he has seen in the young hermit since the day they met.

…………..

In all the chaos that had happened in the days prior Keralis didn’t really encounter any problems. Well, sure the other hermits had to get him food and help him brush pollen off his fuzz a couple of times and help him get on to things. Besides that things are going pretty well for the bee.

The initial terror of the transformation wore off after a few days so Keralis set out to figure out how to fly. He crawls up towards XB and buzzes his wings to get his attention.

It works and he looks down, “Keralis? Do you need anything?”

Keralis pulls a face and flutters his wings and hops a little.

“You want to fly?” XB guesses, “and you want my help?”

Nodding his head he wiggles his front legs.

Carefully and a bit awkwardly XB allows Keralis to walk up into his hand and lets him walk around on his arms for a bit, “Now what?” 

Clicking his mandibles together Keralis opens his wings and flaps them rapidly. Unfortunately, he is unable to move them fast enough and ends up flipping himself over. 

“You alright there?” XB asks as carefully flips him over so he’s right side up.

He answers by tipping his head from side to side in a ‘sort of’ kind of gesture.

“Alright, uh, do you need anything?”

Keralis bobs his head and points in the vague direction of the quarts shop.

“Oh, flowers?”

He buzzes in confirmation as Xb starts to walk towards the nearby garden. When they arrive Keralis wiggles over to a Sunflower and carefully sits in the center and rolls around a little as he drinks some of the nectar. When he finishes he lays down and curls up surrounded by the bright yellow leaves.

Xb smiles and leans against one of the walls. It’s been a long couple of days and it’s been really stressful and chaotic. So it’s no surprise that he falls asleep in the warm sunlight. 

It’s nearly midnight when someone finds them, still asleep in the flowers. TFC grins and gently drapes a blanket over XB.

…………..

It’s been nearly a week since everything started. Jevin is most definitely one of the worst affected hermits. He’s bouncing around in different people’s bases. Currently, he’s making his way over to Hypno’s base. False and Cleo are walking with him to make sure he doesn’t get hurt or stuck.

He excitedly hops up and down as the Boardwalk comes into view. It’s been a while since the last time he saw Hypno. 

Cleo grins at the slimes’ excitement. False laughs a little.

As Hypno walks out of the small home he has constructed along the boardwalk, “Hey guys. How are you doing?”

“Pretty good thanks,” False shrugs.

“Meh, it’s been fine,” Cleo mutters, picking at her nails.

Jevin looks up at his friend and bounces excitedly.

“Hey Jev, how are you doing?” 

He jumps up and bounces towards him leading him over to a few of the base areas. 

The pair spend a few hours gathering wood and messing around before it starts to grow dark. As it fades into night a few slimes from the nearby swamp end up in the boardwalk area.

As the sun rises Hypno starts to deal with the slimes, making quick work of the large ones he starts dealing with the medium ones. As he completes that he leaves the smaller ones alone while he gets some water.

This proves to be a mistake as Jevin wakes up and bounces outside unsuspecting. He freezes as he sees the small slimes. Cautiously he moves over to Hypno. The tiny slimes spot him and bounce towards the unfamiliar blue slime.

When they make contact some of the small slimes get pulled into his slime. Hypno watches in mild horror. His hands reaches up to cover his mouth, as Jevin starts to panic. Jumping into action he pulls his sword out and makes quick work of the remainder of the slimes.

For Jevin everything starts getting hazy. Thinking is suddenly much more difficult. Moving just isn’t an option. His slime turns an unhealthy shade of bluish green as he slowly melts.

“Oh, no you don’t,” Hypno mutters as he plops a boat down. As he pushes Jevin into the boat the slime bounces slightly, confused.

He’s gone from about the size of a medium slime into almost the size of a large one. It’s no wonder that he looks so uncomfortable. 

Seeing his friend start to panic Hypno leans against the side of the boat and talks to the still melting slime. He starts talking to him, helping his mind stay at the front and not be overtaken by the hive mind.

The slime slowly returns to his proper mind and starts to calm down. After about thirty minutes he’s able to reform enough for Hypno to let him out of the boat. He sluggishly bounces into the house.

“So? Do you know how to fix this?” Hypno asks as he thinks of a way to separate the other slimes from Jevin.

Managing to press one of the buttons on Hypno’s communicator he answers.

“N. So no, I don’t want to kill you… but it might be the only way,” They sit in silence for a while and try to think of a different way to fix him.

As the hours tick by a small glowing figure appears on the table in between the pair, “Well, that wasn’t fun,” A high pitched voice chirps as it shoots into the air, “Well don’t look so down, I’m just here to help.”

“Ok, but who are you?” Hypno asks as Jevin shrinks down into himself.

“Oh, my how rude of me, I’m a Vex…” A slightly panicked expression overtakes Hypno’s face, “Now don’t give me that look. We’re not big on names, not since the fall at least. Anyways I was sent to help you. We’re almost ready to start fixing this entire mess, but we saw what happened to you and I was allowed to come here and help you,” The glowing blue sprite giggles as it flutters into the air, “You landed yourself in quite the pickle, i can fix your excess slime problem.”

Jevin looks up at the Vex hopefully. The Vex shoots slightly higher in the air as it realizes something, it drifts down and gently bops his head. 

The slime melts completely in a matter of seconds, Hypno stands up to help but is stopped by the Vex, “Give him a moment.”

The green slime separates from the blue and Jevin reforms. Fully. He’s back in a vaguely humanoid shape and sure he’s a bit less solid than normal but he’s overjoyed at the prospect at being able to speak normally once again, “Thank you,” He gasps as he shakily stands up gripping a nearby chair.

…………

With each passing day Iskall was getting more and more ready to fight the meteor, of course it would be easier to fight if they weren’t an overgrown puddle of slime. They couldn’t do anything without the help of some other hermit and with Jevin regaining a somewhat solidish form it only added to their frustration. They couldn’t even play with Echo or Eve, only watch them and attempt to bounce with them. The meteor couldn’t be merciful enough to grant them the ability to play with the small slimes. 

Iskall grumbles as Etho and Biffa help move them to the shopping district. Etho needs to restock his ice shop so Biffa offers to join and Iskall joins them with nothing else to do. They slowly bounce towards the igloo, the others lugging some skulkers toward the shop, Etho and Biffa assisting Iskall when they are needed. 

The sun is high in the sky when they finally reach the shop, heat pounding down on the three hermits. Iskall was being pulled even thinner than they already were with the heat warming them up a bit too much. Etho opens the door and the slime quickly sides in the ice shop and sinks on the floor melting slightly in comfort. The cool air coming off the ice feels heavily after being in the scorching sun. 

Etho and BIffa chuckle as they start to refill the chests with ice. Slowly the cool air thickens the slime till they could hold a more solid form. They pull their mass to a more stable shape but still can’t fully reform. 

“Dangit,” Etho huffs, “I still need more ice to fully restock.” He rummaged through shulkers. “I have to head back to the ice farm. You guys wanna make another run?” 

“Not unless you drag me out of this heaven,” Iskall sighs. Etho rolls his eyes in amusement but gathers the final shulker and heads out the door. He’s just about to take off when he spots Jevin refilling his mob store. 

“Jev!” Etho shouts to get the attention of the blue slime. 

Jevin looks over to Etho and waves, “Hey Etho, what’s up?”

“Oh nothing much. I need to get more stock for the ice shop oh and by the way Iskall is at the shop right now. They are trying to reform a bit. We figured out the cool air helps a bit.

Jevin nods as he struggles to keep a form where he can talk normally; Iskall has a few spells cast by Scar allowing him to speak, “That should help, just don’t get too cold. The slime will get brittle and might snap If they go with you.” 

“Well Iskall is still in the shop, you should go let them know.” Etho waves as he takes off into the sky. Jevin waves back and turns towards the ice shop just as Biffa exits the shop nearly crashing into the mostly robotic man. 

“Oh, sorry there mate,” Biffa excuses himself. 

“You’re fine, is Iskall alright?” 

Biffa looks over his shoulder towards the green slime, “Better then they were doing. I got to go meet up with Mumbo. He got stuck in some sort of feedback loop, you got Iskall?”

“Yeah, I can help them. Go have fun with fixing Mumbo.” 

Biffa waves as he walks toward the towering building out on the ocean. 

Jevin slides into the ice shop, slowing down a bit as the cool air hits him. The green slime is sitting in a content blob in the center of the shop. 

“Hey Iskall,” Jevin says rolling up next to the bright green slime, “How are you feeling?” 

“Great,” they sigh, “Now that I’m not dripping as much.” 

“Yeah, the heat can do that to ya,” Jevin says sitting down close to the green slime, “How has being a slime been treating you?”

“Oh, just wonderful.”

“Really?”

“No, Jevin. It’s been horrible,” they vent. “I can’t do anything. I can’t build. I can’t work on redstone. I can’t even play with Echo or Eve, and honestly that's the worst part.” 

Silence fills the space between the two slimes before Jevin breaks it, “Yeah, that’s rough.” 

“And what’s frustrating is that you managed to regain your form somewhat but I can’t do anything still!” Iskall huffes. 

Jevin recoils at the harsh words. “Well I’ve been a slime longer than you have,” Jevin bites back. 

Iskall flinches and again the space between them is filled with uncomfortable silence. 

“... sorry,” they mumble. 

Jevin sighs deeply, “No, you’re fine. The meteor has everyone on edge.” 

“I’m just so frustrated. I shouldn’t take it out on my friends though.” 

“You’re fine Iskall.” 

“How did you regain your form anyways?” 

“I had help from the Vex.” 

Iskall bolts up startled, “You what?” 

“Yeah, a Vex helped me. I don’t know why though. It was super weird too. It said something about fixing the bigger issue but helped me regain my mind from the slime hive mind I got stuck in.” 

“Wow,” they gasp, “That is weird.” Iskall groans at the sudden realization, “Well unless a Vex magically appears, I’m screwed then. Great. Just great.” 

“Someone say my name?” a high pitch giggle asks, startly both of the slime. They whip around the shop looking for the source of the voice. Another giggle rings through the room, “Over here you sillys.” 

They look towards the direction of the laughter and find a small blue spirit floating in the air. 

“That’s a-” both of them gasps

“A Vex, yes I am well aware of what I am thank you,” it chuckles, “I heard you were talking about us, and both of you should know that is oh so rude to gossip. Such fine young hermits like yourselves should really know better.” 

“They just wanted to be normal,” Jevin defends. 

“And that’s fair but it's mean to talk behind a person’s back.” 

“We didn’t even know you were there!” Iskall argues. 

The Vex gives a coy shrug, “Oh well then, I guess you don’t want my help then?” They begin to fade slightly. 

“Wait! Wait, wait, I want your help. Please,” Iskall peals. 

The Vex pops back in exietnace, “Very well then, that’s wonderful to hear.” Iskall breathes a sigh of relief. “You want to be normal, you said.” the Vex points to Iskall.

“Yes. Please, I just want to go back to Echo and Eve,” Iskall begs. 

“Oh how sweet,” the Vex coos. “A parent wanting nothing more than to return their family. It would make such a cute story like the ones one of our little con Vex enjoys so much.” The Vex floats just above Iskall, small sparks and particles trailing after the spirit. 

The Vex moves their hands, forming symbols and signs of a spell as light and dust move around their fingers. A shower of magic falls from the Vex and lands on the green slime like snow. 

The slime starts to move on it’s own, shaping and sculpting features like well worn arms and legs built through years of building and battling. Callous hands gain detail in every finger. A face is carved from the formless slime, laugh lines from years of good memories and a bright warm eye accompanied by its diamond counterpart take their place. It’s not perfect, pieces still lack greater details and stability but it is a start. 

Iskall looks at their hands, then touches their face, feeling every detail they could before breaking out into a thankful laughter. Jevin simply puts an arm around their shoulder and brings them into a comforting side hug. The Vex quietly laughs as they vanish from view, either hermit noticing the spirit take it’s leave. 

‘Once this is all sorted out, they all need their rest’ the Vex thinks journeying back to join it’s brethren. 

………….

A solitary Vex flutters up out of the ground, and cautiously approaches the mushroom Island. It knows full well it’s encroaching on another’s territory. As such it brings a few pieces of Vex magic. One if it’s brethren had managed to safely land on the Island. Without much problem, but no one really wants to risk the wrath of another Vex troup and this one is made of a very powerful Vex mage and a mage turned Vex. It’s always best to be careful when entering another‘s domain.

As the Vex flutters into town hall it alights onto the floor in front of the diamond throne.

Scar down up and lands on the floor In front of the slightly taller Vex, “Um, hi. How can I help you?”

“They question is how can ’I’ help you,” The Vex grins, “Gather all your hermits here, we're going to take the meteor’s power and return you to your previous state.”

“Oh, thank you,” Scar says surprised as the Vex flits away. He pulls his communicator out and sends a message out to the others. Telling them that the other Vexes want them over in the shopping district. As the hermits gather in the shopping district the three Vex head over to the meteor’s island. The blue spirit caustinly approaches the meteor, inching closer and closer. 

Back at the gathering group of hermits, a Vex ushers them to come near the spirit. 

“My brethren want to help you regain your previous forms,” a sigh of relief swipes through the crowd, “But this may take time, we fear.” 

“How much time?” Impulse questions. 

“Hopeful no more than a day,” the Vex replied. 

“Is there anything we can do to help?” Iskall askes.

“None of you have the capability of assisting us,” the Vex states, “All expect for you.” The blue spirit points to Scar resting in Cub mane. 

“Me?” he questions. 

“Yes, my little Con Vex. You are one of us now. You have the power to drain the meteor of it’s magic. You are not unaccustomed to the magic of the Vex. Help us save your friends, the Vex cooes reaching a hand out to the small spirit. 

“No!” Cub roars suddenly very protective of his best friend, “Scar don’t listen to them.” 

“Little lion, we mean this with no malice. We swear this on our magic,” The Vex explains, it’s voice as smooth as ever.

Scar nods and dips through the ground to get out of Cub’s protective grasp, “I’ll do it, if I can help stop this I’ll do it.” A rumble runs through the hermits, nerves and anxiety rises. Scar rises to the level of the other Vex. It reaches out their hand. Scar takes it. The Vex begins to dash towards the other Vex, when they’re halted by a shout. 

“Please be safe!” Cub says. Scar can see the fear in the lion's eyes. 

“I will… I promise.”

The Vex turns back towards it’s brethren and pulls Scar along. They remain silent till they get to where the other Vex are waiting. 

“I see that we’ve gained one more,” one the Vex says. 

“Let’s get started,” Scar nervously requests. 

“Our little Con Vex is so determined,” one Vex jokes as it flies up in his face. 

“Hush, he is here to help. Do not drive him away. Now is not the time for humor,” the Vex that had brought Scar to them chides. 

”My apologies,” The second Vex giggles as they land softly on the spawn Island. The meteor even though it’s secured deep underground gives off a threatening aura. Scar shrinks back slightly towards the ocean, when another Vex places a hand on his shoulder. Scar turns to the Vex and is taken aback by the amount of sympathy in the spirit’s eyes. 

“You have the powers to help us and we have the ability to keep you safe. We swore to your friends that we would keep you safe, and Vex never breaks those promises,” the Vex comforts. “We will help guide you in the spell, you have nothing to fear.”

Some of the anxiety leaves Scar’s body, but he still remains frozen in place. The rest of the Vex circle the meteor while one stays with Scar. They slowly grab his hands and guide him underground towards the meteor. 

As they slowly draw closer an odd energy fills the earth around the four Vex. It’s as if they're being drawn in towards the meteor. The Vex that seems to be in charge nods to Scar and the world shifts.

“I see you’ve made it to my mind space,” A smooth and deep baritone voice sounds from the shadows. The room they’re now in looks to be some sort of grand hall. There are tapestries lining the walls and torches in sconces. 

One of the Vex flutters upwards towards the shadows where the meteor is standing. 

A hand reaches out from the shadows, fingers spread out sparks shooting from his fingertips, “I wouldn’t do that if I were you. You have entered my personal domain and as such you will follow my ruling while here.”

Scar speaks up, “Can you return my friends to normal?”

A soft hum comes from the shadows as he considers the prospect, “Normal I will not do, but I will return them to their previous states.”

The Vex huddle together and Converse for a minute. Scar bows his head slightly, “Thank you.”

From within his dark corner the meteor smiles coldy, “You would thank me after all I’ve done to you?”

“Well, yeah. You cursed us, but you easily agreed to stop what you’re doing.”

“Foolish child, I didn’t stop because you asked me to. When I cast this spell it was all a test to see how fast your Vex friends would respond. I also wanted to see if I could get one of your watchers to intervene, but alas that has yet to happen.”

Scar glowers at the shaded figure, as he falls in line with the Vex, they speak in unison, “Your power becomes ours,” they say as the stone walks glow blue and the manifestation of the meteor disappears into the mist.

Scar drops to the ground not used to using that much magic at once. The others scope him up and gently fly back to the shopping district.

As they arrive they gently set Scar down in front of Cub and before he can ask what happened they explain, “He’ll be fine, you just need to give him some Vex magic and he’ll be back to normal.”

Cub nods and lays down tucking his paws underneath himself.

Doc hisses, “Did you fix us?”

Nodding one of the other Vex speaks up, “Av- The Meteor has agreed to turn you back to what you were like before he started doing this. I must warn you I suggest you move away from each other.”

The third Vex waits for the hermits to move away from each other before releasing the magic in a shower of sparks and light. 

The effect is nearly instantaneous as the hermits start turning back to ’normal’. Well as normal as it’ll get with the base transformations.

Ren seems to be fine as he turns back to his mostly human form. Mostly because he’s used to transforming to and from his wolf form. As he turns back he stretches and remains laying on the ground not trusting himself to get up. His ears are pinned flat against his head.

As Cub turns back to his mostly human form with a lot less practiced ease then Ren does. Bones and muscles shifting uncomfortably underneath his skin, although they don’t move with the intense pain that was present with his first shifting. He doesn’t stand yet, groggy and dizziness keeping down on his hands and knees. 

Metal shifts as Mumbo is showered in sparks. With every spark landing peeling away at the metal on his face till it is uncovered once again. A strict clearity is lifted from his mind as the programming subsides to a more human way of thinking. His posture sinks a little, no longer standing straight as a board. His eyes flick from dull red to a soft purple.

Slime solidifies like clay within Jevin. It builds on itself more and more till a human body is formed. Muscle like groups begin to interact with each other once again. Slowly he raises his hand to touch his face. He can feel that all the detail has been regained and a wave shocked relief overtakes him. 

Smoke slowly rises from Bdubs but it isn’t painful. It lazily drifts of his body as new mass is formed. Legs regrow from nothing. Wings fade into ash. Bones subside and shift back into place. Teeth return to somewhat human portions. Aches run through his body but otherwise a clam sense floods his bones.

The magic pulls out Beef’s shoulders and head, gently stretching up out and up away from his body. The fur falls away as skin shifts, muscles redefine themselves to more human shapes. Seconds feel like minutes till his torso is more human than bovine. Beef lays down a relaxed heap, content to have his hands again. 

Still grasped within Cub’s protective curl, Scar begins to change. The point of his ears fade back to the small tip that was originally present. The blue tinge leaves his skin, returning the tanned skin of the human. Scar groans slightly, still in his exhausted slumber but remains asleep. His wings flutter softly as he curls against Cubs shirt.

Feather loosen and fall away as Grian grows larger. His body fills out and changes under the magic. The beak fades back into his face, letting him regain his mouth and nose. An uncomfortable but not unpleasant feeling fills his bones as they slip apart, arms becoming separate from his wings once again. His wings fluff out and a comforting feeling replaces the tightness that once rested in his chest.

In the End, studden magic cascades down Xiusma’s back, warmth spreads out from where the sparks fall. His body starts to shrink in on itself, quills and extra fur falling off as it does. His mouth reverts to a more human shape with shape fangs dulling to more manageable size. The thick plating covering his body merging back with his skin till nothing more than patches of scales remain. Exy quickly rushes to his brother's side and slips his mask over his face as Xisuma is returned to his half beast form and the pair prepare to teleport to the shopping district. 

Clarity floors Doc’s mind, as his human mind takes back control from the creeper half. Human thoughts regain prominence slowly pushing against animalistic instincts. His claws dull slightly along with fangs that had replaced his teeth. 

Once again Tango is encased in fire but instead of pain, a warmth spreads over his feathers. The fire laps at him like a lazy wave as he is reborn again. He crumbles to ash but a human body with wings reforms instead of a bird. He remains kneeling still recovering from the slight pain of being burnt and brought back again. 

Wels shrinks down to his normal size as scales begin to peel off his body. Muscles and bones reshape to a human being. A refreshed feeling overcomes the half dragon as his mind is cleared of any overpowering greed. He lets his wings stretch out over his back, letting the afternoon sun warm them. 

Keralis buzzes in glee as he grows. The striping fading back into his skin within seconds. The extra arm merage painlessly back into his side. Mandible shift to a human’s mouth pastled with a tired grins as the transformation reverts back to his bee like form. 

A bleat escapes the ram as magic worms it’s way up his body and around his chest and arms. The magic pulls on muscle and bones pulling them to the previous shape. The wool falls on in small clumps. His hooves break apart to fingers again. A tired but content sigh leaves the now satyr’s mouth. 

Iskall grins as their slime starts to re-solidify. The green fades back into a normal skin tone. Detail returns to their skin. Hair turns brown. Their eye regains its cybernetic inset and flicks on glowing bright green. 

Python has spent a week in his snake form and he’s been fine, he had eaten before the transformation so he didn’t need to eat while in the full snake form. He lazily blinks as sparks drift around his head. Jerking back in surprise he shakes his head as he slowly leaves his coil and realizes he’s back in his naga form.

As all the transformations end everyone is exhausted and many of the hermits are almost falling asleep on the ground. The more awake hermits start ushering the rest of them into the chest monster shop that was almost out of stalk and had most of the floor covered in thick blankets. There’s a few beds shoved up against walls and some piles of blankets and pillows scattered around. Various hermits snuggle close together, basking in each other's warmth and presence. Many are glad to hold their friends close again. Others sit along the walls, talking in hushed whispers and small giggles every once in a while. The feeling of normalcy seeps back into the group, a strangle normalcy but a normalcy nonetheless. 

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope y’all have enjoyed reading, Hypno is up next with an interesting sort of thing affecting him.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed and have a nice day/night.


End file.
